Also, I want to thank everyone who helped contribute to this little messed up project of mine. When I first started the Crinoverse, it was mainly a writing exercise for me; I never intended to play in it myself, just see how many games and settings I could mash together and keep a game world viable, but here we are, five years later, with almost a dozen games having been run in the crinoverse by various folks, four of which going on right now. I am grateful for all the support, and I'll keep doing this for as long as possible.

One of my all time favorite settings, but sadly one I have not done much with, is Gestalt. I really like the setting and most of the characters, and I'm kind of sad that Blackwyrm games seems to have forgotten both this and the Algernon files series, So I think I'll start the new thread by looking at one of the main villains from Gestalt whom, despite being portrayed as one of the greater villains of the universe, never got stats in the book (She may have been statted elsewhere, but I haven't seen it.)

Anywho, without further ado...

Dr. Power

Arguably one of the most dangerous scientific minds in North America, Dr. Teresa Powers is one of the leading experts on Gestalt, and is the first scientist to develop a method to create Gestalts, the inventor of the Gestalt detector, and has done extensive research on the Imageria, the source of Gestalts.

Its too bad that Power is completely insane and evil.

Dr. Power is one of the most, petty, cruel and evil geniuses on the planet. While she does not reach the pettyness of Kenneth Kane or the casual cruelty of Taurus, Dr. Power's all time favorite hobby is making the lives of those who defy her miserable. Something as trivial as a Politician naming her as an 'enemy of Canada' is sufficient for her to devote a few days to totally ruining their life.

Of course Theresa comes by it honestly: Her father, Matthias Powers, was one of the most arrogant, cruel, and abusive jackasses to ever walk the face of the Earth. Haughty and misogynistic, Matthias always pushed Theresa relentlessly to follow in his footsteps, barely praising her triumphs and endlessly haranguing her for her failures. While any one else would have been broken by this abuse, Theresa was galvanized by this abuse, coming out of it as a brutally ingenious scientist without a single angstrom of compassion or pity within her.

One of Power's other favorite pass time's is kidnapping. Power is always on the lookout for interesting and powerful heroic gestalts whom she can kidnap and experiment on. Most of these heroes are never heard from again, others show up later, either depowered or warped beyond recognition. Power keeps several secret labs all over Canada where she holds captured Gestalt. A favorite tactic of hers is to use her technology to hold a city hostage and force the surrender of a hero, or to stage an ambush for a hero. So far, only one hero has ever escaped her clutches; The hero Crucible, and that was only thanks to the Legion of super heroes.

While Power is not a Gestalt herself (And yet, according to the Gestalt book she's PL X, WTH?) Power is a master of Gestalt, both in creating them or locating them. She has developed a special machine that can produce Pure Gestalts loyal to her. Most of these Gestalts are less humans and more like localized events or devices. She has also developed machines that allow her to transform normal people into Gestalt (usually chain gestalts with machines based on devolution rays or zombie plagues), and more. She also has more esoteric pieces of super tech, the most infamous of which being her dreaded Suicide machine. A satellite based device which can send out an invisible beam which can reverse the survival instincts of the victim, causing them to kill themselves in the most gruesome way imaginable. Power claims to have dismantled the Suicide Machine in exchange for the capture of Crucible, but who knows if she was lying.

Of course, Power is no slouch in direct combat. While she is loathe to enter battle herself, she is never without her trusty gravity spheres, which, working in tandem, are strong enough to lift an elephant, and can repel even the blows of Angel Girl. She is also rarely without some manner of Gestalt bodyguard, usually a robot Gestalt or gestalt of periodic elements or phenomenon.

Power is generally a loner in the villainous community. She has no interest or desire to work with other villains. She finds Necrull revolting, Teleios a preening arrogant fool, and despises Chris McClain. Likewise, she is also a major foe to every major Canadian hero team, including Team Epic, The Legion of Super heroes. Power is also a major enemy of Gimmick the Gadget girl, having a personal grudge with the female inventor because hers was one of the donors for the DNA Teleios used to make her (Something Power has not forgiven The Perfect man for.)

Gestalt was always one of my favorite settings, Crinos, and i'm glad to see you doing some work with it. I'd love to see the Patriots Athena meet with the Gestalt one.

I think Dr. Power may have been slated to be given more detailed stats in the second Gestalt book (along with a lot of other characters) but that never came to pass. As for her being PL X, I think it's supposed to show that she can do anything she needs to do to fit the plot. So yeah, if she needed to, she could take down Divinos, but she could also be nested b a team of PL 10s I'd that's what the story called for.

One of the most powerful and dangerous anti metahuman groups in North America, the Institute for Human Advancement is a political party and scientific think tank dedicated to protecting "Normal humanity" from metamen and other dangerous supers.

The primary weapon of the Institute is their political lobbying power; Numerous wealthy politicians and business men fund the IHA and try to influence capitol hill to pass increasingly oppressive laws against superhumans. The Barnett years were the hey day for the institute, where they managed to get their claws into numerous senators and representatives. Though they lost a lot of their power following the coup, They still have several politicians in their pocket.

But they don't stop there: The IHA does "Research" on metaman kind, conducting rigged experiments and studies to try and prove metamen are dangerous, they secretly run Metahuman "Outreach Centers" which claim to help metamen understand their powers, but in reality are only used to torture unsuspecting metas and brainwash them into hating and fearing their powers, and they employ doctors who scan for metaman genes in parents and try and convince those with the potential to have metapowered kids not to have children.

But they don't stop there. Sometimes they use even more illegal means to their ends: The scientists of the IHA have developed devices which allow them to cause metapowers to go out of control, which they often use to "prove" how every metaman is a time bomb waiting to go off. rumors are that they run metaman concentration camps in remote areas like the Rockies and southern Canada are unfortunately true, but of course the worst of all are the Minuteman robots, Ten foot tall battle robots which are alternates to the Exterminator robots used by Project Icarus.

The most prominent members of the IHA are the Goodkind Family, a powerful and influential family which is also rabidly anti mutant. One of the members of the Goodkind Family, Ayla (Born Trevor), is a metaman, and has been thrown out of the family. S/he is now the chief financier of the Tomorrow Society, and actually bought out a prominent American comic company.

One of the major scientists of the IHA is Emil Hammond, a sadistic mad scientist known for torturing young metas to learn about their powers. He was once captured by the Champions, but the IHA employed a metahuman to change his features so he could not be fingered, and he was released. Emil's younger brother Hector was also an anti metahuman scientist working for Project Icarus,but was mutated by a strain of the Wildcard virus which turned him into a huge headed psychic. He is still at large.

Finally there is Sebastian Shaw. Shaw is a major Spartacorp industrialist and factory owner, and also a rabid anti meta bigot. He is also a Metaman, a kinetic energy absorber and a member of PHANTOM's Highest Society. Shaw and his associates believe that super powers should only belong to the rich and powerful, and has programmed all the robots and metahuman detectors his company produces to ignore his and his associates powers so they can pass for normal. Shaw envisions a future where he rules the world through his robots, metaman lines are carefully guarded through breeding, and anyone who isn't born into money is basically a slave. Shaw is a good friend to the Goodkind family, who have no idea he is a metaman.